The invention relates to the technical field of apparatuses for dispensing paper wipes, made of cellulose wadding, creped paper or suchlike material intended more particularly for wiping the hands of users, and toilet paper.
Very many types of automatically operating wiper apparatus exist and the Applicant has developed several apparatuses of this type with automatic or semiautomatic operation capable of dispensing strips of folded or unfolded material.
These apparatuses, which give satisfactory service, are of the type comprising a moulded plastic housing accommodating in its upper part a feed reel of wiping material, a drum containing a cutter device with a serrated blade, and a presser means for feeding the strip of paper towards the drum and tensioning the paper. The cutter blade is pivoted inside the drum and moved by engagement of a toothed spur connected to the pivot of the cutter blade, and engaging with a fixed rack means positioned internally on one of the sides of the housing. This drum is also provided with a cocking mechanism with a crank and return spring as described and illustrated in the Applicant""s French patent. A cover protects the mechanisms.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,441,392 discloses the fitting of the drum in a cutting dispensing apparatus with projecting points arranged at the ends of the drum to permit separation of the paper as the drum turns, and to facilitate its cutting.
Again, French Patent No. 2,555,975 in the name of the applicant discloses the fitting of the drum around its periphery with projections in the form of catching spikes or points whose function is to prevent the free strips of paper pulled around two rollers at a time from slipping relative to each other.
A dispensing apparatus in accordance with the preamble of Claim 1 is also disclosed in PCT Patent WO A 96/03912.
While these apparatuses of the abovementioned type, which are in widespread use, work very reliably with paper wipes of new manufacture, certain cutting difficulties arise when using recycled papers, unfolded papers of great width and folded papers that comprise several juxtaposed thicknesses.
This is due to the fact that the tensioning of the paper before it is cut is not always constant owing to the nature and properties of the material and the manner in which the end of the strip of paper is pulled by the user.
The Applicant was therefore concerned with solving this problem by seeking initially to improve the application of pressure by the presser means to the drum, by attempting to discover the most appropriate calibration for the elastic return means.
In practice, the results not being uniform, the Applicant turned unexpectedly to the manner of operation of the drum containing the cutter device.
Thus, according to the invention, the distinctive feature was the modification of the constant initial circular section of the drum by variation of its external profile around part of its periphery, so that it could act in certain stages of operation of the apparatus and of cut dispensing of a strip of paper with the best possible tension applied to the paper.
According to the invention, around an angular sector of the periphery of the drum is a region of increased thickness defined between the edge of the opening for the passage of the cutter blade and a line corresponding to the axial plane with its edge on the axis at the end of which the crank is linked and attached, enabling cocking of the drum in preparation for the cut, the said region of complementary thickness being in contact with the presser means which is generally retractable, in terms of its position, on a floating mounting so as to absorb the changes in the thickness of the drum during the period of tension on the pulled strip of paper followed by cutting of the said paper.
These features and others also will become clear in the remainder of the description.